Assembly Republican Nancy F. Muñoz sponsors a resolution memorializing the contributions of the women in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. AJR-84, approved unanimously by the Assembly Women and Children Committee, designates July 1 of every year as “U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps Day.”

Muñoz said her mother was a Cadet Nurse, trained in one of the final classes at the end of World War II. Muñoz followed her footsteps into the healthcare profession. “The Cadet Nurse Corps changed the face of nursing in this county,” said Muñoz, R-Union, Morris and Somerset. “The program paved the way for improvements in educational standards and training, and helped launch more than 124,000 young women into careers at a time when there was a desperate need for nursing.”

“During the war, with so many nurses committed to military service, there was a critical shortage of skilled nurses on the home front,” Muñoz said. “Within two years of the formation of the corps, Cadet Nurses accounted for 80 percent of American nursing care. These young nurses were World War II heroes in every sense. We should celebrate their efforts and preserve their memory.”

American nursing schools, which previously only accepted white students, were integrated by the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, which recruited thousands of African-American women nurses.